Owner: How's This Sound? URL:http://musical-instruments-blog.com/ Join Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2008 09:04:21 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: Musical Musings Mustered - Music and Musical Instruments are discussed, from a personal perspective and often with a big helping of humor and pop culture references. Site statistics:Click here
Not So Old Time Radio 2008-03-09 05:34:37 Has the reference to the greatest hits of the (time period of choice) ever made you think, “and what were the other candidates”? Well, radio airchecks are a window into the audio past. An aircheck is a recording of what a radio station was broadcasting during a particular time. It’s primarily a sample of how [...] Read more:Radio
, Old Time
3D Guitar Picks and Drum Sticks 2008-03-08 06:09:25 Because of my child, I had to see Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert in 3D the other day. It really wasn’t painful, although I was always cogizant of the fact that I’d been promised it only lasts 75 minutes. No the music wasn’t memorable, at least beyond the theme song I’d [...] Read more:Guitar
Easter Cymbals 2008-03-06 17:05:32 If you’ll forgive a slight departure from music proper, I wanted to share a video I just made to use in a skit for our church’s Easter
Egg Hunt. This event is supposed to draw in all sorts of people looking for candy-filled eggs, so I’m trying to pack a lot of quick entertainment in with [...]
Jailhouse Disco 2008-03-05 22:00:55 Now I know what happened to disco. All the dancers of that genre were captured and imprisoned. Here’s a video of them performing “The Hustle” by Van McCoy.
I guess the truth is stranger than fiction. Large scale dances really have become a rehabilition technique in Cebu, Phillipines. It’s not all the prisoners, though. They have [...]
Libera 2008-03-04 22:34:41 I can’t believe I still haven’t heard of this group outside of YouTube. It appears to be a British professional boys choir with some pop overtones. They are obviously on TV somewhere. I have a deep love for all songs based on Pachabel’s Canon in D, such as Vitamin C’s “Graduation,” but this particular song [...]
I See Your Lips Moving, But . . . 2008-03-03 20:57:06 I felt sorry for Ashley Simpson when she was caught lip-synching on Saturday Night Live. Heck, I felt sorry for Milli Vanilli. I guess I focus more on the end product. I mean, you admire the soloist who can command the attention of an colisseum audience for several minutes, I understand that creating something live [...] Read more:Moving
High Kings Rule! 2008-03-02 21:44:27 I think it should always be pledge drive time on PBS. You notice that every time you see some great performance, it gets interrupted by a commercial to ask for a donation, but it’s balanced by the fact that it was a pretty awesome performance. Tonight, as I was preparing a listing for a bodhran, [...]
Stacks o’ Keys 2008-03-01 07:03:23 I was looking in a drawer the other day and came across a 5-¼” floppy diskette (are you impressed I knew the ASCII code for ¼?) Okay, so it’s only been a decade since I had a computer that could read such a diskette. I actually felt a little nostalgic about it. It would have [...]
Beethoven’s Kiss-Pass It On 2008-02-29 20:35:26 I’m totally unorginal here, but I like this story. I got it from my pastor. It’s about a great classical pianist, Andor Foldes (1913-1992) of Hungary. The story goes that he was a child prodigy, performing with the Budapest Philharmonic at the age 8. I believe I was mastering tying my shoes at that age. [...] Read more:Beethoven
Fun With Your Keyboard 2008-02-28 18:07:55 I just finished writing an eBook on a fun approach to playing a keyboard. That’s it over there to the right. It actually wasn’t my idea. A business mentor of mine had only seen one video of mine and suggested I write the book as a promotional tool. I finished it this morning and sent it [...]
Song for a Saint 2008-03-12 15:57:29 I have a friend who’s been battling tough cancer for a year. It’s come in at least two places, two phases. Young children complicate things. This person is truly under assualt. Yet, this person has stood out as a the most faithful and inspirational person I’ve known in recent memory. There’s a fire there that can’t [...] Read more:Saint
Circuit Bent—If That’s Your Bent 2008-03-11 21:27:53 Hey, something for everybody. I’ve been looking at keyboards on eBay. There’s plenty of used ones and plenty in anything but new condition, but every once in a while I see title that includes the words “circuit bent.” So, I looked into it. It is an activity—an art form, shall we say—that is apparently done [...] Read more:Circuit
Genius John Williams 2008-03-10 20:44:49 Ever since Close Encounters of the Third Kind, I’ve been a John Williams
devotee. If you don’t know, a Steven Spielberg film without a John Williams score is like a Ron Howard movie without a Clint Howard bit part. John Williams is like a separate voice in the movies he scores. You leave Spielberg movies not [...]
A Bank of Tape Recorders 2008-03-14 14:42:10 My father is a pastor (no, please keep reading) and used tape recorders all the time when I was growing up. One particular one I enjoyed was a little reel-to-reel one that allowed for speed changing and sound on sound. I was reminded of that when looking into mellotrons just now. If you’ve heard “Strawberry [...]
Keyboard Dreams 2008-03-13 23:27:58 When I was a teenager and discovered the fun of creating keyboard music without regard to what sheet music was available, I dreamed of being able to play a big stack of keyboards, whether it be a a fifteen-manual organ like at the “House on the Rock” in Wisconsin or towers of synthesizers, such as Rick [...] Read more:Dreams
The Trouble With Musicals 2008-03-21 22:22:46 Like I said in my last post, I saw Wicked this week. It got me thinking about musicals in general. I love them, but I find them frustrating, or at minimum, they require work. For instance, in preparation for Wicked, I bought the cast album to review several times. As it turned out, it got [...] Read more:Trouble
Wicked the Musical 2008-03-20 16:35:22 I saw Wicked
the Musical
in Chicago last night at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts/Oriental Theatre. Man that’s an amazing place. The detail on the walls and ceiling takes your breath away.
I’ve wanted to see Wicked for a couple of years. Naturally, they’ve run commercials here frequently, since it’s local. My kid is [...]
Coming Soon . . . 2008-03-19 08:50:33 I don’t mean to turn this into “Dear diary,” or “Hey, guess what I’m having for lunch,” but I’m seeing “Wicked” in Chicago tonight. I’ll post a review tomorrow. Read more:Coming Soon
Music of “The Mission” 2008-03-18 21:31:34 I think I want to hear “The Mission
” on DVD. Oh, seeing it would be nice, too, but after a friend mentioned the great score by Ennio Morricone, I sampled it on YouTube. The vocals seem to be a different time signature than the orchestra and the effect is awesome. Here’s a concert version:
The same [...] Read more:Music
Now That’s a Vital Organ 2008-03-17 21:50:36 When I was a kid (here we go again) before I was captivated by synthesizers, I drooled over organs. Buttons and keys. Lots of them please. I used to play the organ at church for fun. My parents were afraid of me messing the thing up for the church organist, so I scribbled out a diagram of how all the switches were [...] Read more:Vital
Thanks, David Archuleta 2008-03-26 23:54:05 One thing I love about YouTube is finding musical performances that I should have years ago. One of those is John Farnham, whose soaring “You’re the Voice” was chosen by David
Archuleta for his performance this week on American Idol. Below is a 2003 live performance. Though it seems to presume knowledge of, if not [...] Read more:Thanks
Tomorrow’s Yesterday is Today 2008-03-25 14:05:00 Last April, I submitted a song to American Idol. You may argue that it is unlistenable, wretched, boring, or not remotely musical, but wouldn’t you at least agree that “All Because of You” works better as a title than “This is My Now”? Okay, quick contest. Name a song title that would have been worse [...] Read more:Today
, Yesterday
Bodhran Demo 2008-03-24 22:02:23 This is a kind a drum I’ve been doing some research on. Isn’t this kid fantastic?
Don’t Mess With John Farnham 2008-03-28 22:37:00 Okay, so David Archuleta got me onto John Farnham with his cover of “You’re the Voice.” This performance apparently struck a chord, primarily in Australia. If you look at YouTube comments for John Farnham performances and videos, you’ll likely see comments about David Archuleta, mostly in the tone of, “How dare the little squirt think [...]
Name that Tune and Name that Hamlet 2008-04-01 08:28:53 We take recorded music for granted, don’t we? I have music on my phone and now I just HAVE to have Bluetooth capability in my van so that I can instantly play whatever my current interest is while I’m driving. Now, we see kids perform on American Idol and it’s okay if we get distracted. [...] Read more:Hamlet
Listen Closely 2008-04-07 21:16:43 Today I want to rant about songs that don’t mean what people think they mean.
Ronald Reagan exclaimed in 1984: “America’s future rests in a thousand dreams inside your hearts; it rests in the message of hope in songs so many young Americans admire: New Jersey’s own Bruce Springsteen. And helping you make those dreams come [...] Read more:Listen
A Wild Entrance 2008-04-08 22:06:04 Isn’t this crazy? Dhol Academy performs on a stage that’s a giant dhol. I love big entrances.
Are You This Good With Your Hands? 2008-04-09 22:23:18 I have mixed feelings about this video of hands “performing” Daft Punk’s “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.” I like the creative flash of words with a song. The first song of U2’s Zoo TV tour had a all sorts of words scrolling across various screens and I badly wanted them to reuse the eye candy another [...] Read more:Hands
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